The Azure Cloud Sect was noisy. Even on the private peaks, the sound of sparring, chanting,
and beast roaring was constant. Su Mei thrived in it. Li Wei was drowning in it.
He needed an anchor.
Using his accumulated Support Points and a hidden location the System had mapped out for
him, Li Wei created a sanctuary. It was a small valley tucked behind a waterfall on the far side of
the mountain range, technically outside the sect's formation but close enough to access.
He built a cottage. It wasn't a grand palace of jade. It was a replica of their home in Cloud
Sparrow City. Wood floors, paper windows, a small kitchen with a clay stove. He planted
ordinary vegetables—radishes, bok choy, onions—instead of spirit herbs.
It was a bubble of the mortal world.
"Mei'er," Li Wei said one evening, while serving her a bowl of spirit broth. "I have a surprise for
you. Can you come with me for a few hours? Away from the sect."
Su Mei looked up from her scroll. "Now? I have to study the formations for the upcoming trials."
"Please," Li Wei said. He rarely begged. "Just for dinner. A real dinner."
Su Mei sighed, closing the scroll. She checked the time on the sundial. "Fine. Three hours.
Then I must return to cycle my Qi at midnight."
Li Wei took her to the secret valley. He didn't fly; he led her by hand through the mountain paths
he had cleared.
When Su Mei saw the cottage, she stopped. She stared at the wooden sign Li Wei had hung:
Golden Phoenix Pavilion (Branch).
"You built this?" she asked quietly.
"Do you like it?" Li Wei asked, his heart pounding. "I tried to make it look like our old bedroom. I
even found the same pattern for the curtains."
They went inside. Li Wei had prepared a feast. Not spirit food. Mortal food. Braised pork belly.
Sweet and sour fish. Steamed buns. The food was heavy with grease and flavor, lacking the
purity of cultivation meals.
They sat at the small wooden table. The candlelight flickered.
"It looks... exactly like home," Su Mei said, touching the tablecloth. Her voice softened. For a
moment, the Ice Fairy vanished, and the shopkeeper's wife returned. "I remember this cloth. We
bought it from the silk merchant who had the lisp."
Li Wei laughed, relief washing over him. "Yes! Old Man Zhou. He always tried to overcharge us."
"And the fish," Su Mei picked up her chopsticks. She took a bite.
She chewed slowly. Then, she stopped.
Li Wei watched her. "Is it... is it good?"
Su Mei swallowed with difficulty. She forced a smile. "It is delicious, husband."
But she didn't take another bite.
"You aren't eating," Li Wei noted, the joy draining from his face.
"I..." Su Mei put the chopsticks down. "My body... it rejects impurities now, Li Wei. This food... it
is full of heavy oils and toxins. If I eat it, I will have to spend days purging it from my system."
She looked at the braised pork—his specialty—with a subconscious expression of revulsion. To Li Wei talked about the vegetable garden he planted. He talked about a funny squirrel he saw.
He talked about the weather.
Su Mei listened, but her eyes kept drifting to the moon visible through the window.
"The moon is bright tonight," she interrupted him in the middle of a story about radishes. "The
Yin energy is strong. It would be a perfect night to attempt breaking the third seal on my sword."
Li Wei stopped talking. The silence stretched between them, filled only by the crackling of the
fire.
"I am boring you," Li Wei said. It wasn't a question.
"No," Su Mei denied, but it was a weak lie. "It's just... Li Wei, your world is so... small. Radishes?
Squirrels? I am thinking about the mysteries of the universe. I am thinking about how to split the
sky. It is hard to shift my mind back to... this."
She gestured around the room. "This place. It feels like a museum. A museum of a dead
person."
Li Wei felt as if she had stabbed him. "This isn't a museum. This is who we are. We are Su Mei
and Li Wei. We are shopkeepers."
"No," Su Mei stood up. The chair scraped loudly against the floor. "You are a shopkeeper, Li
Wei. I am a Cultivator. I have shed that skin. You are the only one trying to stitch it back onto
me."
She walked to the window, looking out at the waterfall. "I appreciate what you did. I know you
are lonely. But you must understand. I cannot go back. I don't want to go back. Why would I
want to be a weak mortal woman worrying about silver coins when I can be a god?"
She turned to him, her eyes blazing with cold fire. "Don't you want me to be a god, Li Wei? Isn't
that why you gave me the pendant?"
"I wanted you to be safe," Li Wei said, his voice cracking. "I wanted you to live."
"I am living," she declared. "More than I ever did selling mirrors."
She walked toward the door. "I need to go back. The midnight hour is approaching. My
cultivation awaits."
She paused at the threshold. She didn't turn around.
"Don't bring me here again, husband. It makes me feel... heavy. And I need to be light to fly."
Then she was gone. A streak of white light shooting into the sky.
Li Wei sat alone at the table filled with cold food. The braised pork had congealed. The sweet
and sour fish looked gray.
He picked up his chopsticks and took a bite of the pork. It tasted like ash.
He chewed and swallowed, tears running down his face into the bowl.
"System," he whispered. "She hates it. She hates the life we had."
[Analysis: Beneficiary has outgrown the Mortal Realm. The butterfly does not wish to
return to the cocoon.]
"I am the cocoon," Li Wei realized. "I am the empty shell she left behind."
He stood up and began to clear the table. He didn't destroy the cottage. He cleaned it. He swept
the floor. He washed the dishes.
He would keep it. He would keep it perfect. Because one day, maybe in a hundred years, she
might remember. Or maybe, when she finally killed him, he would ask to be buried here.
The Secret Garden was no longer a home. It was a shrine to a memory that only one of them
cherished.